Moving to bolster the team at point guard, the Clippers are pursuing three-time All-Star Steve Francis, who could become a free agent this week, league and team sources said Sunday.

The Argument in Favor:

• We all love the idea of having a Pass First PG who will always make the heady play. But the truth is that when Cassell can’t play, the Clippers have an anemic scoring attack, even with Maggette on the floor. If Francis is willing to play nice, he can provide the Clippers’ backcourt with a dynamic spark -- something the unathletic Cassell and relatively pokey Mobley can’t. During his recent fall from grace in Orlando and New York, Francis was still a comparatively productive offensive player. His low-water mark PERs of 15+ eclipse anything you’ll find on Steve Blake’s or Jason Hart’s stat sheet.

• There’s a tendency to believe that ball hogs, by their very nature, don’t to the dirty work and phone it in on the defensive end. But Francis, with his quickness and brawn, has always been one of the better rebounding guards in the game. Even more important, Francis can dog opposing point guards and has quick feet. He’s got the size and strength to defend bigger shooting guards and can fight through perimeter screens when he feels like it.

• Francis has played the best ball of his career alongside Cuttino Mobley, both in Houston and Orlando. It wasn’t until Cat was shipped out to Sacramento that Francis began to pout in Orlando. With Mobley as one of the Clippers’ co-leaders, it’s reasonable to hope that Francis will strive to be a good citizen.

The Argument Against:

• Though he’s listed as a point guard, Francis lacks the distributive skills the Clippers need as a post team. It isn’t that Francis can’t handle the ball; he’s pretty good in traffic and his crossover is still nifty. Nor is Francis a fundamentally bad passer. He just isn’t the kind of player who instinctively knows where the ball needs to go in a given possession. And finding his big men has never been Francis’ strong suit. Since elevating Chris Kaman’s game is the most elastic variable next season, this is an obvious shortcoming if Francis plays point on this particular team.

• From the moment he scowled at the indignity of having to don a Vancouver Grizzlies’ cap on Draft Night 1999, Francis has been one of the league’s most incorrigible malcontents. Will a reunion with Cuttino Mobley and a house on the beach be enough comfort for Francis when Dunleavy realizes that Francis can’t deliver the ball into the post?

• For all the manufactured drama, Francis has won exactly one playoff game over his eight year career. While it might be a little reductive to say that Francis is a loser, it’s fair to question whether he can truly help elevate a team that needs to win an additional 5-10 games next season.

With Portland buying out Francis’ contract, the Clippers will only have to give Francis something between the Veteran Minimum and the MLE. In other words, there’s no reason to believe that the Clippers can get Steve Blake or Jason Hart for any less.

Clipperblog loves the idea of a formerly bratty star confronting his NBA mortality and realizing that, unless he cultivates a strain of humility, he’ll go down as a cautionary tale. Empowered by his epiphany, said formerly bratty star decides that taking only 11 shots a night on a pretty good team with a very good front line endears you to your coach and teammates, and generally makes winning basketball games easier. Then people will say nice things like, “A year ago, Steve Francis was persona non grata in this league. But he’s really found himself this season in Los Angeles.”

Can Steve Francis be the Great Reclamation Project of 2008? Clipperblog has no idea, but it would certainly make for some good theater after a season that was as painfully boring as it was unfruitful.

Posted Wednesday, October 29 at 3:20PM

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Comments

I'm not really hot on the idea of getting "Stevie Franchise" because, so far he has never been a franchise player, or taken his teams in any direction to become a franchise player. I think the one upside to this is that he and Mobley play great together and maybe a new cast of teammates and a new, if unrelentless city, will help him and us.

"Empowered by his epiphany, said formerly bratty star decides that taking only 11 shots..." In my opinioin, one of the most amusing paragraphs I've ever read!

If anything, having catmo's shoulder to cry on, and having something to prove can't be bad for the clips.

However, I wonder how Franchise and Maggs would get along. Would they be able to run a bit more and get Corey some easy buckets? Or, would Corey be just as frustrated playing with Franchise as he seemed with Cassell? Franchise is just another scoring PG, whereas Hart and Blake seem to more pass first guards.

Exciting and eventful-yes. More passes and crisper offensive sets-not so sure

I think this is a reasonable gamble. If we believe we had enough offense, I don't think this should be considered, but Franchise is a scorer first and foremost... and if he buys into Dunleavy's "system" (whatever that might be next season) and learns to run our sets efficiently, this could be a good balance.

The thing with Franchise (and what concerns me the most) is he seemed a step slow last season. Alot of his game (both sides of the floor) is predicated on his athleticism, which is declining imo. Something to watch for if we sign him.

Backup what? He's not a point guard outside of a triangle sense and the Clippers are set at the 2 with Mobley, Ross and Maggette.

Fisher is a shooting guard at this stage in his career. He's a smaller, older, poorer shooting, poorer rebounding Mobley.

But you don't have to take my word for it: http://basketball-reference... Then you could go to 82games.com and verify that he played the bulk of his minutes at the 2 last season and in Golden State his productive minutes were also as the 2.

SOME team will be very lucky to get him, probably the Lakers, but he doesn't solve any of the Clippers problems.

Ok, I admit I was a bit curious. I went to Basketball Reference. I compared Derek and Cuttino.

The comparison (reproduced below but likely unreadable so you'll have to take my word for it) showed that Derek averaged about 10 minutes less per game with Utah last year than Cuttino with the Clops, still got more assists than Cuttino, scored a bit less and, wonder of wonders, got less rebounds than Cuttino.

The key comparison is the 48 mins comparison. There, Derek averaged 6 assists, which are good pg totals, and about 17 pts/ game.

To me Fisher's numbers reflect good backup pg numbers. This is an intelligent player who is a leader and who may be had on the cheap. Only John R would care about the rebound totals of a backup pg / small sg.

But hey - I guess a couple of rebounds are important when you're trying to justify Dunleavy's ridiculous decision to shell out $9 million a year to Cuttino while at the same time slamming Maggette for wanting to start.

All interesting points, but why compare Fisher to Catmo? Shouldn’t we compare Franchise to Fisher?
Per 48 mins:
Francis+9 PTS, Francis+2.8 TOV, Francis+3 AST, Francis+4.5 REB.
It looks like Francis at 30 vs Fisher at 33 may not be a bad idea.
Per 48 mins:
Cassell is +8 PTS on Francis, but a slim -0.8 Tov on Francis.

I’m leaning more and more toward liking the Francis acquisition.

Now before you all get crazy and come after me like Jax and John R, what follows is a complete and total tangent. I also take into full account hindsight as 20/20, who would have known, it wouldn’t have happened with MDsr, blah-blah-blah…BUT:

What would the All-coulda-would-shoulda-Clippers look like?

We could conceivably have Granger, JJack, L Head, David Lee, Monta Ellis, or even Luol Deng, Iguodala, Al Jefferson, West, Barbosa, and Howard. And yes, I’m beginning to sound like pipe-dreams-r-us, but we could’ve also had the likes of Amare, Prince, Boozer, Mehmet, and Redd.

Look at what coming to the Clippers did to Sam-I-Am two years ago. He came hear to prove a point he wasn't washed up (which he is now), but I think the same thing could happen for Stevie Franchise, well, at least if the Clips go that way I hope for. Plus, he wouldn't need a huge contract because Portland would be buying him out (hopefully this Clipper interest won't stall that and then we're stuck with nothing). If Dunleavy doesn't make a bold move, then he will be out as coach next year, he knows that. And while the West is getting better (Seattle and Portland in the draft), the Clippers need to do something, and I think this is a gamble that could pay off. What's the worst that could happen, a repeat of this season, wel, been there and done that for many years as a Clippers fan so I wouldn't be surprised, but we are stuck in the middle right now, go for some old veterans and have some glory now, or wait out the contracts of our old veterans and rebuild? i say go for it now, get stevie franchise.
we need offense in the backcourt, kaman did good 2 seasons ago because we had offense in the backcourt (sam was good then), but without a scoring point, kaman can't handle the pressure of a double team (he doesn't have nerves of steel)
cheers.

I'm on board with Franchise if his contract is small and short enough. The Clips have unusual requirements given the conditions of Cassell and Livingston (The Old Man and The Knee). Whether Livingston comes back strong (fingers crossed) or not, the Clips need friendly contract(s) at the point.

The thing is that fans of every single NBA franchise can play the we-coulda-had game. There isn't a team in the league that couldn't of had some large combination of Barbosa, Boozer, Ellis, Arenas, Howard, Etc, etc. I'm not saying the Clippers have been good drafters, but the fact that the Clips have passed on stars isn't unique to them.

I think Kevin's post on "Why You Keep Maggette" made a good argument. However, I'd probably rather see LA address their pg needs via a trade that I've seen rumored: Mags to Dallas for J. Terry.

The trade works straight-up, with Terry making 1.1 mil more than Maggette. The loss of Corey would hurt, but they'd be filling a bigger hole on their roster with a player who -

- scored just 0.2 ppg fewer than Mags last year
- had a slightly higher PER at just under 19
- can stretch the floor; Terry has shot over 40% from 3pt in each of the last 3 years, with 2+ 3pm per game in each of the last 2 years.
- is an ample dimer at 5.2 apg.

AND they would still have the MLE (I think, I'm no cba expert), which they would no longer be desperate to use on a pg. Perhaps Dallas wouldn't do this, but I did hear the rumor, and the Mavs have Devin Harris and they could use some relatively young athleticism (Corey).

HOWEVER, my primary concern would be the length of Terry's contract. He has 5 or 6 more years and he'll turn 30 before next season.

JJW, you're clearly free to disagree about the benefit of bringing in Terry. Still, it's somewhat difficult to see the point of your comments.

You criticize bringing in "average players" (I'd call Terry good; neither average nor great). Frankly, even an average pg (particularly an average starter-quality pg) would be a good thing for the Clippers right now.

How did Terry fair against Parker, Nash, and Baron? I don't know (I'm not gonna check splits right now), how do most pg's all over the league do against those guys? I do know he still managed to score 17ppg (on a poor FG%) in the Golden State series.

For clarity, I should point out two things (1) the clippers are not in a position to get a great pg, and (2) trading for Terry would not break the bank (again, he makes 1.1 mil more than Maggette; the issue would be the length of his contract, as I've said).

The best thing that Corey provides is scoring (and it is valuable). Terry provides essentially the same amount of scoring while shooting a higher %, stretching the floor better with the trey, and filling the need for a pg/passer.

I'm not sure if you can really argue that Corey's rank among wings in the NBA is better than Terry's rank among pg's.

Perhaps you have a lot of faith in Steve Francis. Francis certainly could help the Clips, but do you think he's better than Terry right now? And, again, trading for Terry would still leave the Clips with MLE money to sign a decent free agent wing to replace Corey (I've checked; there are some in this year's crop who could both help and be signed for the MLE).

Again, it's one thing to disagree. Throwing out the word "ridiculous" in this case and making a point based on an unanswered question about how Terry did against the top pg's in the league makes your position seem weird to me.

I think J.Terr is a sick baller.. Great shooter, not afraid to take the open J's, good basketball I.Q. AND He's always been a pain in the ass for other teams (sort of like what Ginobli is to the Spurs and what Maggette kinda is for the Clips) The only problem I see is that he's turning 30 next year. If we can only sign him to 5+ years, he probably only has 2 more years (at best) performing at the level he's been playing at Dallas the past 2 seasons. On the other side, I know youth is really the key to our future, but I say F*ck it. I'd rather take a bunch of 30 year olds and have winning seasons NOW then take youth and go through another shitty season of "development". No disrespect for Livy, but Man, I wish we signed A.I.
Hallelujah, Holla Back!

As for Stevie Franchise, maybe Mobley can make the difference... I know for a fact that I always ball better with my friends. We all know he still has some 25+ point games left in him. If we can sign him for relatively inexpensive, I'm all in at the Flush

I like J-Terry and think that if he were 2 years younger he'd be a PERFECT fit for this team. Like samiam, he has a very high bball iq, can shoot and loves taking big shots. He's also unselfish and (a HUGE plus)doesn't need the ball in his hands to be effective (so few good players in this league have that quality).

The clips desperately need aggressive backcourt players that can score and shoot...he fits that mold. BUT HE'S TOO OLD and is making TOO much money. I agree w/ J-smooth, he'll only perform at his current level for 2-3 more yrs.

We desperately need a scoring 2 with a jumper, and we need one now! but i don't know that there are any avail players that fit that mold. We get older every year and continue to tread water (we don't make a splashy high risk move to make ourselves competitive now, and we don't get good young players).

Stevie and J-Terry won't win us a championship anyway...what we need to be debating is whether or not to blow this thing up.

The west is pretty much locked up for the next 3-4 years anyway....I say we need to blow it up and go with another youth movement (that way we'll be contending w/ the likes of seattle and portland in 4).

If anyone is interested in knowing why KAMAN is still in LVSL Clipper team and how good or bad is JARED JORDAN, we have a chance to watch 3 summer league games on NBAtv. Pre-recorded games will be shown twice(each game)

I don't have an exact plan for overhauling the team, but if I could i'd do away with just about everything but Thornton (young with a ton of offensive potential) and Brand (should have 3-4 good years left...good guy, doesn't need the ball to be effective...sells tickets). I'd trade all the appealing players (maggs) for good younger guys and lottery picks. We'd likely have to make a splashy signing to package some of those oldies (CAT) and bad contracts (Kaman).

If we were to start over and go young, it'd be imperative that we acquire (draft?) a young first tier true pg. Takes some of the pressure off of young guys while they're developing.

ian, the last thing Clip fans need is another 5 year rebuilding project. I don't think the Clips are a contender nor will be one with Brand as the #1 but despite last season's debacle, I would consider this team comfortably above average. Maybe the Clips could sneak into that 'pretender' status with a few tweaks or even just waiting for Thorton to develop and as a longtime Clip fan that's been through a decade of mediocrity, I'm perfectly fine with that.

I don't know...the west only seems to be getting better and better. Golden State AND Portland now have better teams (and coaches) than we do...and NOLA ain't far behind us. I'd rather have an exciting and young team to root for than another losing year of bland, uninteresting and bad basketball. At least then we have the potential to win at some point.

THE CURRENT CLIPPER ROSTER JUST ISN'T VERY GOOD! If we made the playoffs we'd be lucky...especially because the wester n conference is only getting better every year.

I agree that blowing up the team and further subjecting this long suffering fan base to even more losing isn't the ideal choice....but we refuse to make smart/splashy moves. WHY THE HELL WEREN'T WE IN THE J-RICH SWEEPSTAKES!!(monta ellis was also available) He would've been PERFECT FOR THIS TEAM!

If we're gonna try and win now, then we have to get better NOW...alot better, and Baylor doesn't seem to be aware of that.

It is my opinion humble opinion that the Clippers flourish when the team's chemistry is strong. The 05-06 season was special becuase of the positive mindset that the team, as a whole, had throughout the year. 05-06 was spearheaded by Sam-I-Am, and his outlook and leadership really took hold of the Clips and elevated their game play to a whole other level. Even when reports indicated that certain players were unsatisfied with their particular role on the team, those reports were overshadowed by the winning attitude, the "fun" the team seemed to be having and exhuberance of the team as whole.

06-07, on the other hand, had a distinctly ominous tone. Although the season began with high hopes, injuries (which there was definately no shortage of) really played a negative effect on the team's mindset. First Kaman, then Sam (which effectively took away some of the winning attitude), then Livi, even Mobley for some games ... wait ... Magette missed games .... Ross missed games ... Well, there didn't seem like there was any good juju was in the Clips mindset.

You'll note, however, that towards the end of the 06-07 season, Brand tried to stir the emotional pot in the later part of the season, but really (I'm going to go out on a limb here) I think Jason Hart really brought a new "vibe" to the team.

He had nothing to lose, loved LA and just wanted to play each game like it was his last. I really think that Hart's naivete (sp?) gave the Clips a new attitude and swagger, and really helped them make that push towards the end of the season. Although he may not have the "all-star" PG chops, he did bring in some intangibles that the Clips really needed. It was the intangibles of confidence, no fear, and "play and have fun". [I loved when he was nailing buckets against Portland or Charlotte (I think) at the end of the season, pounding his chest and waving his arms to get the Staples crowd going. [Side note, I'd love to see Hart stick around a little while].

As for Stevie "Franchise", I think that his addition would be good for the Clips. He's already got the relationship with Mobley (who is respected in the Clips locker room) and he does have that "chip" on his shoulder.

I agree with the discussion that Stevie's got something to prove, and I think his "new" attitude would bring some of the same kind of intangibles that Hart brought at the end of last season.

Of course, any analysis of his attitude about playing for the Clips is mere speculation, but looking at it from a posistive angle, if he has even a fraction of what Hart brought to the table, I think that infusion of "new life" IS what the Clips need for next season.

Forget about blowing the team up and starting over. We have good and GREAT players. Forget all the criticism about coaching. Forget about having "pipe dreams" of "stat players" coming in to "fix the problems". IT'S NOT THE PLAYERS WHO MAKE THE TEAM .500, IT'S THE MINDSET!!!!!!

I SAY: Bring in the guys who want to don the Red, White and Blue. Bring in the guys who want to represent Clipper Nation. If Stevie Franchise WANTS to start fresh with the Clippers, bring him in.

Obivously, there are certain things (perimeter shooting, play making PG) that I haven't addressed, but comparing stats means nothing if you don't have a heart that you're willing to leave on the floor night in and night out. I don't necessarily care if you have "everything" that the critics say the team needs to compete. Don't come into my house unless you really want to be here.

If we analyze Dunleavy's past actions against Maggette, one thing we can be sure. That is: there's no guarantee he'll make sound decisions in the future. We all know about Elgin Baylor. He's too old to raise his eyebrows. Forget about him asking questions about Dunleavy's miscarriages of thinking abilities.

I agree. IMO the main problem is that Dunleavy may have squandered the one real chance that the Clips had to compete because he squandered the loosening of Sterling's purse strings. As a long time Clipper fan, this just kills me.

Greg, I agree with you that Sterling trusted Dunleavy and that Dunleavy got him to loosen the purse strings. The problem, however, is that the results of trusting Dunleavy have been, ahem, underwhelming. Sterling doesn't like to waste money.

Great article from Hollinger, Jax. Makes sense not to pick Law or Young...Also based on his formula, Paul Davis is due for a break-out season...anytime now Paul, anytime...I say, F*ck the needs, let just go for the best talent we can get for 14th!

04/11/08 20:56:38

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